Sunday's launch of a navigation
satellite was the 12th
flight of a Long March rocket in 2010, eclipsing the record for most
Chinese
space missions in a single year.

This weekend's flight broke an
annual record China
set in 2008, when it conducted 11 launches of human, scientific and
military
payloads.

This year, the country's burgeoning
space program has
launched 12 rockets, all successfully.

Payloads include four Beidou
navigation satellites launched in January, July, August and
October. China
plans to continue a rapid pace of Beidou flights over the next two
years,
eventually reaching an intermediate stage of deployment by 2012, when
it will
provide positioning services over China and neighboring regions.

China will have launched 14 Beidou
satellites by 2012 to
achieve the localized coverage in the Asia-Pacific region, according to
official government sources.

Three Long March flights have orbited
Yaogan military
reconnaissance satellites, beginning in March when a trio of spacecraft
blasted
off on a Long March 3C rocket.

Two more Yaogan payloads, believed to
be electro-optical or
night-vision radar spy satellites, were sent into space in August and
September.

Long March rockets in June and
October sent Shijian
technology demonstration payloads into orbit.

The June launch of Shijian 12 started
a groundbreaking
rendezvous test that reached a crescendo in August, when it approached
another Chinese satellite. China released no official account
of the demo,
but independent analysts using U.S. military tracking data concluded
the
spacecraft must have passed within about 600 feet of each other.

Other boosters launched a Tianhui
mapping satellite, the
Chinasat 6A television broadcasting spacecraft and the Chang'e 2 probe
to the
moon.

Chang'e 2 launched Oct. 1 and reached
the moon five days
later.

At least three more satellites are
planned to launch this
year, potentially extending the record to around 15 missions by the end
of
December.

China is preparing another Long March
rocket to haul a
Fengyun weather satellite to orbit as soon as Nov. 4. Another
communications
satellite and Beidou navigation platform could follow later in November
and
December.

The pace of Beidou launches, coupled
with increased activity
in China's human space program, should continue a frenzied launch
manifest
through 2011.

China is testing the core module of a
mini-space station
named Tiangong 1 for launch late next year. Future Chinese astronaut
crews will
visit the complex starting in 2012, Hooray for NASA's EPOXI flyby of Comet Hartley 2! according to state media.

This year's record launch rate comes
as NASA and China open
a joint dialogue on potential space cooperation. NASA
Administrator Charlie Bolden visited China last month, and
his hosts
afforded him unprecedented access to human spaceflight facilities.

Although the talks did not include
discussions on specific
partnerships, according to NASA, the visit provided a basis for further
dialogue.